The seven-year-old's best friend, who had never seen this show, was visiting tonight; I figured there'd be no interest there but she was glued to the television. I think it was the competitive aspect, because she had no particular interest in any of the players.
So. This week's first test had the heroes on the street, trying to help out as best they could--buying used clothing to distribute to the homeless, shaming litterers into picking up their trash, helping folks to cross the road, etc., Stan watching and judging.
But the elimination didn't come from just this--it came after Dark Enforcer popped in to let Stan know he had interviewed the heroes' friends and family to learn their deep, dark secrets. Feedback's wife revealed that when he was at home, he was a slob. A former co-worker of Major Victory said something nonspecific about MV's career as a stripper (something Stan seems to have a problem with, for some reason, although it's something from his past). A friend of Creature told how, although Creature claims to be so environmentally oriented, in the past she once threw hotel items (ashtrays? towels? she didn't say) into a fountain. Fat Momma's mother told how Fat Momma wasn't always as accepting of her body as she is now, citing a period during which she dieted to try to lose weight. And a friend of Lemuria told how she was something of a man-trap. Here Stan called up Creature (not only had she littered, in the first test she had jaywalked, and that's against the law!); in addition, her response to what her friend had said was pretty poor (something along the lines of "that's the decision I made"), so it was no surprise when she was eliminated.
The kids were not especially bothered by the loss of Creature despite her girl-ness. I think they just never found her all that sympathetic.
The last test was an odd one. The heroes were taken to a site where convicts were doing road work, and each had to go and talk to the convicts. Each also had to perform a "secret task" during this conversation. There were four tasks, one for each hero--to hug a convict three times, to rub a convict's shoulder's three times, to brush back a convict's hair three times, and to sit on a convict's lap three times. Yeah. They broke it up so that Lemuria did the lap-sitting, Fat Momma the hair-touching, Major Victory the shoulder-rubbing, and Feedback the hugging.
Now, obviously these were not actual convicts, they were actors, and they were intentionally making things difficult. In any case, Lemuria got thrown bodily off of the woman she was trying to sit on (big surprise), Fat Momma barely managed to do the hair thing, Major Victory had to be pretty sneaky to touch anyone's shoulders, and Feedback was really the only one that was able to get the convict to agree to anything, trying to find some common ground beforehand.
Now, I actually had a problem with this last test. Although the heroes had been instructed to touch the convicts in these different ways, not only did the convicts themselves ask not to be touched during the scenarios, in several cases the guard (or person playing a guard) specified that the hero was not to touch the convict. Honestly, I half-expected Stan to fail all of them for going ahead and doing it, because they were going agaist the orders of a law enforcement officer. If Creature got into trouble for jaywalking, doing the opposite of what a police officer asks you to do should be of concern as well. You know, something like "Superheroes obey the law" or "Superheroes work with, not against, law enforcement." Obviously I misread that test.
At the end, when it was time for the elimination, Stan called up Lemuria and Major Victory--Lemuria because she had failed the test, and Major Victory because he's an ex-stripper (still haven't figured out why that's such a hot button for Stan, but whatever). Lemuria, of course, was the one to go.
I will say that these eliminations are getting almost painful to watch--each one more emotional, each eliminated member given a more intense goodbye. I think all three of the remaining contestants were teary-eyed this time (leading my dear spouse to say "They've been filming all day haven't they? They're all really tired, aren't they?").
The girls are disappointed at Lemuria's elimination--they liked her a lot, and were not bothered by the ambition she showed. They're kids, the idea of wanting to win a game is not alien to them. They're pleased that Fat Momma is still there, but the younger one is now rooting for Major Victory, which I guess shows that while their kneejerk reaction is to cheer for the women, once they're familiar with people (once they "know" them, if you can call it that with a TV show), things other than gender are more important.
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